Following in the wake of October’s closure of Holden’s and Toyota’s car assembly operations, the last passenger bus manufacturer in Sydney is set to shutter. From 9News:
Staff at Custom Bus in Villawood finished their last shift this afternoon after being handed redundancy notices.
More than 100 employees were laid off last week.
The company’s closure would mean there are no longer any factories in Sydney equipped to build passenger buses…
The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union is blaming the state government for sending hundreds of millions of dollars in bus contracts overseas.
“We’ve seen a trend by this state government that it (procurement decisions) should be purely cost-based and NSW workers should compete on who should do it for the lowest wage,” AMWU NSW Secretary Steve Murphy said.
Thirty-eight new doubledecker buses were built in Germany and assembled in Malaysia for the Northern Beaches B-Line.
In the 2017/2018 budget, Premier Berejiklian committed to buying a further 170 vehicles, but has no provisions to procure them locally…
Custom has been making buses since 1935 with roughly 60 percent of State Transit Buses on Sydney’s roads coming from their factory…
Just like the closure of Australia’s car industry, this will leave another dint in Australia’s balance of payments, given these imported buses will need to be funded by other exports, asset sales or external borrowings.
The Australian economy has become even less diversified and even more dependent on ‘houses and holes’.
